Bulgaria: Protesting the Escalating Persecution of Falun Gong Practitioners in China Before the Start of the Olympic Games in Beijing

Hundreds of people showed thier support for a new campaign initiated by the NGO 'Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (CIPFG). The event, entitled “Millions of Signatures”, was held at the National Palace of Culture on April 19th, 2008. Similar events will be held every week in the capital Sofia and in other cities until August, when the Summer Olympic Games are scheduled to kick off in Beijing.

Many people expressed their indignation with the fact that the host of the games will be the Chinese regime, which is infamous for trampling on the basic human rights of its own citizens. They wished success to the campaign and expressed hope that the atrocities done by the regime to the Chinese people will stop forever.

The goal of the campaign is to gather one million signatures all over the world. These signatures will be handed to the International Olympic Committee. The Chinese government will be urged to stop immediately the killings of innocent Falun Gong practitioners in China. On April 7th, the total of signatures gathered all over the world are 205 462, with Bulgaria adding 329 signatures.

In 2006, two members of the CIPFG – David Kilgour (former Canadian secretary of State for Asia and Pacific) and the international human rights lawyer David Matas published a report which confirmed the claims of illegal organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners in China.

On August 9th, 2007, in Athens the Human Rights Torch was lit, again upon the initiative of CIPFG. The Torch has passed through more than twenty countries on four continents and recently has entered China. The initiative stood against the atrocities done by the Chinese regime despite the promise to improve the human rights situation as the host of the Olympic Games in 2008.